Phonograph.



P. WEBER.

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APPLICATION FILED FEB. 6, 190a.

Patented 00115, 1909.

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72 577265?) W o I means which may readily be applied to such UNITED STATES r n rnnr OFFICE.

PETER WEBER, OF ORANGE, NEW JERSEY,

ASSIGNOR TO NEW JERSEY PATENT COM- PANY, OF WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

v PHONOGRAPH.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 5, 19059.

Toall whom it may concern} Be it known that I, PETER WEBER, av citizen of the United States, and a resident of Orange, in the county of Essex and State of l ew Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Phonographs, of l which the ,following is a description.

' y invention relates to phonographs of the'type wherein the sound box is carried on a traveling carriage to which a progressive move'ment'is imparted by means of a rotating feed screw, so that the reproducer or recorder stylus traces a spiral path with respect to the' record surface.

It has been the usual practice for many years to rovide a feed screw of fine pitch which wil advance the traveling carriage a distance of one one-hundredth of an inch for each revolution of the mandrel. More recently, however, it has been found possible to manufacture a sound record in which the record groove has .two hundred turns or threads to the inch, so that it is desirable to provide a phonograph in which the feed of the carriage will be suitable for operating u on a record of this'description. In View 0 the fact, however, that there. are already thousands of phonographs in use in which the feed screw advances the carriage one one-hundredth of an inch per mandrel revolution, and a vast number of records are also in use having a itch of one one-hundredth of an inch, it is desirable to provide honographs whereby the carriage may be driven at one-half the speed at which it has been heretofore driven, such means also permitting the feeding of the carria e at its usual speed, so that the phonograph can be used interchangeably with sound records havin either one hundred or two hundred threads per inch, and my invention has for its object the provision of interchangeable means of this character which may be readily applied to a phonograph and in which, when so'applied, the parts may be readily shifted with respect to each other, so as to drive the carriage at the desired rate ofspeed.

Reference is hereby made to the accompanying drawings, in which corresponding parts are designated by the same reference numerals in the several views, of which Figure l is a plan of aportion of a phonograph to- 'which my invention is ap plied; Fig. 2 is a section on line 22, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the phonograph, some of the parts being broken away; Fig. f is a section on line H of Fig. l and Fig. 5 is a section on line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

The-phonograph shown is of well-known form and comprises a base or body 1 which supports the main shaft 2 upon which the feed screw 3 is formed and which carries the mandrel 4, and drive pulley 5 over which passes the belt from the phonograph motor. The traveling sound box carriage 6 rests at its forward end upon the usual straight edge or track 7, and is sleeved at its rear upon a rod 8 which takes the place of the usual fixed guide rod. The rod 8 is provided with a longitudinal groove 9 and is j ournaled in bearings 10 secured within the uprights 11 which are integral with the base 1. Upon the end of the shaft or guide rod 8 is a spur gear 12 and another spur gear 13 is fixed to the shaft 2. These gears may be brou ht into driving relation to each other by a slidable gear 14 fixed upon the end of a pin 15 which has a removable'head l6 and is movable longitudinally Within a bore formed within the boss 17 of the arm 18, the latter being secured by a set screw 19 to the pin or center 20 upon which the shaft 2 rotates. A flat spring 21 and a bent plate 22' are secured at their rear ends to the carria stl by screws 23, and a screw 24 is threade in the plate 22 in such position that its lower'end' bears against the upper surface of the spring tical portion of a bent plate 28 which is clamped between the spring 21 and carriage 6 by the screws 23, said plate serving to secure the sleeve 25 to the carriage 6 while permitting rotation thereof with the shaft 8. The sleeve 25'is provided with a flange or hub 29 upon which is fixed a spur gear 30. A frame 31 is secured to the spring 21 by screws 32, and supports a gear train composed of spur gears 33, 34 and 35, the gear being fixed upon the hub of a wheel 36 rotatable upon the pin 37, and the periphery of said wheel is formed with a screw thread 3S having the same pitch as the thread of for operating upon a record having one hun= the screw 3, but of reverse direction, so that i the wheel 36 is adapted to mesh with they screw 3, being held in yielding engagement 1 therewith by the resilience of the spring 21, i the degree of pressure being regulated by the screw 2'L,as previously described.

The operation of the device is as follows: When the parts are in the positions shown in Fi 1. the rotation of the feed screw 3 wiIl in'ipart a progressive movement to the carriage (5, and will advance the same for each revolution of the feed screw a distance equal to the pitch thereof, the threaded wheel 30 acting merely as a feed nut, since the frictional engagement of the said wheel with respect to the feed screw is not suflicient to overcome the friction of the gears y 33, a4 and 35 upon their pintles, and the friction of the shaft S in its bearings, said I 'l'rict ionthe'refore acting as a means for holda ing the wheel 36 against rotation. The rate of feed of the carriage is therefore suitable i i l i i dred threads per inch. hen the pin 15 is moved outward the gear 14: is brought into engagement with the gears 13 and 12 and the i latter is therefore positively driven from the shaft 2 and drives the shaft 8. The shaft 8 drives the gears 30, 33, 34 and and thereby causes the wheel 36 to rotate in direction opposite to that in which the shaft 2 is rotating and at one-half the speed thereof. On account of this rotation of the wneel 36 the movement imparted to the carriage by the feed screw 3 is at a rate which is exactly one-half. what it was in the former case, and the carriage is therefore fed at a rate suitable for operating upon records having two hundred threads per inch.

having now described my invention what I claim is:

1. In a phonograph, the combination of the rotating mandrel, feed screw and traveling carriage, of a rotary wheel carried by the carriage in engagement with the feed screw, means for holding said wheel against rotation, and interchangeable means for imparting rotation to said wheel independently of its frictional engagement with the feed screw, substantially as set forth.

2. In a phonograph, the combination with the rotating mandrel, feed screw and traveling carriage, of a rotary wheel carried by the carriage in frictional engagement with the feed screw, means for holding the same against rotation, and interchangeable means for positively driving the same while in frictional engagement, at a speed different from that of the feed screw, substantially as set forth.

3.'In a phonograph, the combination of the rotating mandrel, feed screw and traveling carriage, of a rotary wheel carried by the carriage and having its periphery formedl with a thread adapted to engage the thread l of the feed screw and of opposite direction, means for holding said wheel against rotation, and interchangeable means for posi tively driving said wheel in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of said feed screw, substantially as set forth.

In a phonograph, the combination of the rotating mandrel, feed screw and traveling carriage, of a rotary wheel carried by, the carriage and having its periphery formed with a thread of opposite direction from that of the feed screw and in engagement therewith, the diameter of said wheel being substantially the same as that of the feed screw, and interchangeable means for positively driving said threaded wheel'in a direetion opposite to that in which the feed I screw rotates, substantially as set forth.

An attachment for phonographs consisting of a spring 21 carrying a gear train and a rotary threaded wheel adapted to frictionally engage the feed screw, substantially as set forth.

An attachment for phonographs consisting of the/spring 21 carrying a gear train and a threaded Wheel adapted to frictionally engage 'the feed screw and means for varyin g the tension of said spring, substantially as set forth.

7. In a phonograph, the combination of the rotating mandrel, feed screw and traveling carriage, of a rotary shaft 8 upon which the carriage is sleeved, means for driving saidshaft, a rotary wheel carried by the carriage in frictional engagement with the feed screw and a driving connection between said shaft 8 and said wheel, substantially as set forth.

8. In a phonograph, the combination of therotating shaft 8, traveling carriage slidable thereon, a gear 35 traveling with said carriage, and a driving connection between said shaft and gear, substantially as set forth. i

9. In a phonograph,'the combination of the rotating shaft 8, traveling carriage slidable thereon, said shaft having, a groove formed therein, and agear 35 traveling with said carriage and having a spline engaging said groove, substantially as set forth.

10. In a phonograph, the combination of the rotating shaft 8, traveling carriage slidable thereon, and a sleeve 25 in driving conneetion with said shaft, said sleeve being I 12. In a phonograph, the combination with the rotating mandrel, feed screw-shaft and trevelin carriage, of a rotary shaft 8 upon whieh t-1e carriage is sleeved, a gear 12 mounted on said shaft, a gear l3 mounted on the feed screw shaft, and a sliding gear 14 adapted to be bronghtinto driving relation with said gears 12 and 13, substantially as set forth.

13. In a phonograph, the combination of a rotatable feed screw, a carriage mounted to travel parallel to the feee screw, a rotary Wheel carried by the carriage in n'ieshing engagement with the feed screw, means for means for impnrt-il'ig rotation to said Wheel independently of its frictional engngen'zent with lT-ilQ fQBt'l sqrew, substantially as for h. i l

. Zn 2 phonon-re oin the eon'ibinution of it rorziinble feed. rew, n shat parallel thereio, :1 carriage mounted to travel on said shaft, a rotary wheel carried by the carriage and out ofniesh will holding said Wheel against rotation, and

in meshing engagement with the feed SCI'QW, gear (connections movable with said carriage between said wheel and said shaft, and means for rotating said wheel or not, as desired, substantially as set forth.

15. In :1 pl'ionogrziph the combination of a pair of shafts, centers on which one of said shafts mounted, gears on said shafts, a bracket carried by one of said centers, astud carried in slidable relation by said bracket and :1 gear carried by Said stud, movable into id other gears by the sliding movement of said stud, substantially' as set forth. I

q 1'" ,1 i '1 Q 1 inns :PLLI Radon si nee ant W1 neseet this llh day of Feb 1908.

PETER WEBER. 

